Friends, fight-lovers, and all-around knuckleheads, welcome to the Head Kick Legend UFC 141 open discussion thread! Please direct all tomfoolery, skulduggery, gnashing of teeth, and, you know, enlightened commentary about the night's proceedings to this thread.

Your fight card for the evening:

Your MC for the evening is a bright, tender-hearted, unconventionally handsome young man with severe animal allergies. His favorite sandwich is baloney, his favorite submission is "chin to the eye." He tried to shake Andrei Arlovski's hand in a public men's room and was once given the cold shoulder by Bas Rutten at a comic book convention. And now you know...the rest of the story.

Update: Ariel Helwani has announced via Twitter that Matt Riddle is off the card due to illness. Riddle vs. Ramos has been scuttled.

The final UFC card of 2011 is finally here and it is headlined by two of the most imposing men ever to set foot in a cage. Brock Lesnar will face off with Alistair Overeem for the right to challenge YOUR new Heavyweight Overlord, Junior dos Santos.

The rest of the card has some compelling match-ups as well including Donald Cerrone vs. Nate Diaz and Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks.

Let the prognosticating commence!

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The end of the year is always busy in the kickboxing world, but this weekend the news was fast and furious.  To get you caught up, here's a giant stack of results:

In Europe, the big action was at Rumble of the Kings.  This K-1 Scandinavia show featured a number of big names in action.  Of particular note - #9 Artur Kyshenko got back in the winner's circle with a decision victory over #24 Marcus Oberg.  Good win here for Kyshenko, who has had a somewhat miserable 2010 and really needed to end strong.  The main event was less impressive as Bob Sapp once again came in, took one shot, and immediately turtled up, crashing to the mat.  His corner threw in the towel - the crowd threw in the boos.  Sapp's opponent was Jorgen Kruth.  Another MMA fighter was on hand, as Gary Goodridge faced Catalin Morosanu.  Morosanu took the easy victory in rd. 2 in what has been described as a pretty ugly fight.  Also on the card, Dzhabar Askerov def. William Sriyapai via TKO in rd 2, and Rickard Nordstrand def. Jiri Zak via dec.

Also in action this weekend was #4 Albert Kraus.  He defeated Muhammed Gur via decision at a Klash event in Germany on Saturday.  Pretty impressive for Kraus to be back in action so soon after the MAX Grand Prix, but he's always been a busy fighter - this is his 5th fight of 2010.

Australia also hosted a major event as Evolution presented the Muay Thai card Evolution 22.  In the main event, #12 Nathan "Carnage" Corbett defeated Frank Munoz via KO in the 3rd round.  Bruce "Preacher" Macfie, fresh off his upset victory over John Wayne Parr, was upset by Frankie Giorgi.  Giorgi KO'd the Australian veteran in the 2nd round.  Rising Aussie fighter Eli Madigan won over Harlee Avison via cut stoppage.  And Michael "Tomahawk" Thompson, an exciting fighter I look forward to seeing more from, lost a split decision to Yud Rawai.

In more Muay Thai action, Khem Sitsongpeenong defeated Abdallah Mabel by Decision at the Nuit des Champions event in France.

Finally, in an event that slipped by us last week, K-1 presented the finals of the 2010 Koshien tournament.  Defending champion and tournament favorite Masaaki Noiri lost in the 2nd round to Keigo Ishida.  Your new Koshien champion is Shoei Hareyama, who made his first Koshien tournament showing here.

A bit of K-1 action this weekend, plus one of the most anticipated shows of the winter season later this week:

K-1 Koshien 2010 King of Under 18 Final - Saturday, Nov. 20:  Thanks to the 63kg Grand Prix this year, there's a bit more at stake in this year's Koshien final.  In the past, Koshien fighters didn't have many options in K-1, no matter how well they did at the Koshien stage.  But this year, we saw a number of fighters make the jump from Koshien action up to big fights in both K-1 and Krush.  There's also a bit of a change in the format this year.  In the past, the final 4 competed at Dynamite to crown the year's Koshien champion.  This year, the entire tournament will be decided on Saturday.  It's a huge tournament, with 32 competitors.  Fights are one 2 minute round in the earlier stages, and the semi-finals and finals are three 2 minute rounds.  The big name to watch here is returning Koshien champ Masaaki Noiri.  He's had a huge year, winning a number of increasingly high profile fights in Krush, and is the favorite to repeat here.  With Koshien it's tough to make much in the way of predictions, but it should be a fun event.  View the complete line-up here.

UFC 123: Jackson v. Machida - Saturday, Nov. 20: Over on the MMA side you've got UFC 123, which features the return of one of the most interesting stand-up fighters in MMA.  Lyoto Machida has brought a completely new stand-up style to the UFC, using his high-level karate skills to put on absolutely masterful displays of both evasive defense and sudden bursts of offense.  It's a style that's not for everyone (including Quinton Rampage Jackson, who's been calling Lyoto boring) but fans of kickboxing should really appreciate what Lyoto brings to the table.  The real question on Saturday will be if he has made any changes to his style following his big loss to Shogun.

Shootboxing S-Cup 2010 - Tuesday, Nov. 23:  Thanks to the high-profile signings of Andy Souwer and Buakaw Por. Pramuk, this year's edition of the S-Cup has garnered a lot of attention.  And rightly so, as Shootboxing's weird blend of stand-up and submissions usually yields good results and exciting matches.  I know I am eagerly looking forward to this one.  We'll have more on this tournament in the coming days.

November and December are busy months in kickboxing, but this weekend kind of slips between the cracks.  Not a ton of huge fights to talk about here.

The biggest show is Sunday's Thailand v. Germany show presented by Elite Boxing.  The main event of that show will see the #18 ranked Leroy Kaestner face Cagri Ermis.  A protege of Peter Aerts, Kaestner has a number of good wins on his resume in recent years, including a defeat of Gago Drago in May and a K-1 MAX Europe GP win in 2009.  But he's not yet been able to put together that solid string of victories that propels him into the upper levels of the division.  Ermis is a late replacement for original opponent Yavuz Kayabasi.  Ermis has faced a number of the 70kg division's top names over the years, including Nieky Holzken, Giorgio Petrosyan, and Pajonsuk, although he has typically ended up on the losing end.

Also on this show, former K-1 Grand Prix participant Kaoklai Kaennorsing is on a 4 fight win streak.  He faces Marco Aschenbrenner here.  Klash champion Shemsi Beqiri meets Fadi Merza, plus Alex Vogel v. Nonsai Sor. Sanykorn, Bob von Boxmeer v. Danyo Ilunga, and Vahit Arslan v. Daniel Oepen.

Although that is all for kickboxing, there are a few other fights worth noting.  Saturday night's UFC 122 (free on Spike TV) includes a fight from former K-1 MAX competitor Duane "Bang" Ludwig.  Ludwig still displays strong kickboxing skills, and will put them on display against Nick Osipczak Saturday. Unfortunately, it's a prelim fight, so chances are good it will not air.  UFC 122 also includes Dennis Siver on the main card.  Siver has shown moments of stand-up skills that have really caught my eye, most notably his big spinning back kick KOs.  Kickboxing fans should check him out as he faces Andre Winner.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that Saturday night is also Manny Pacquiao v. Antonio Margarito.  Pacquiao is one of the most gifted fighters competing in any discipline today, and anyone who is a fan of stand-up action should try to tune in.  For great coverage of this fight, be sure to check out our neighbors at BadLeftHook.

This weekend marked the opening round of the United Glory World Series of Kickboxing and MMA.  Featuring two separate MMA and kickboxing tournaments, this international event started with the round of 8 this weekend, with the semi-finals and finals to be held in February.

In the kickboxing tournament, everything went pretty much according to plan, aside from some last minute card shuffling.  When original participants Errol Zimmerman and Adnan Redzovic had to drop out, a few changes were made, resulting in a pair of round 1 mismatches.  First, Brice Guidon rolled to a decision victory over Flip Verlinden.  Then Guidon's original opponent Gokhan Saki stopped Nikolaj Filan in the 3rd.  Also in the tournament, Mourad Bouzidi defeated Anderson "Braddock" Silva via decision.  These two met earlier this year at the It's Showtime Amsterdam show with the same result.  Finally, Wendell Roche defeated Stefan Leko when Leko retired from the fight in round 2.  This was another unimpressive performance from Leko who continues to demonstrate that his time in the sport is done. 

Announced semi-final fights: Gokhan Saki v. Wendell Roche, and Brice Guidon v. Mourad Bouzidi.  Look for a Saki v. Guidon final.

The other big kickboxing fight on the night featured Nieky Holzken facing Murthel Groenhart.  In a close fight, Holzken walked away with the decision after an extension round.  From watching highlights and reading comments online, it looks like there is some controversy over this decision as a lot of viewers felt Groenhart should have won.  One of the top 10 fighters at 77kg, Murthel Groenhart has been having a strong year, and a great showing against Holzken will help, even in defeat.  This fight was at 76kg as Holzken is a huge middleweight who has struggled to make the 70kg limit.  He's been trying his hand at higher weights so far this year, with mixed results.  Nothing yet set up for his next fight, though I would love to see Holzken v. Artur Kyshenko at a higher weight that doesn't force either man to cut down greatly.

Rounding out the kickboxing side of things: Robin van Roosmalen, coming off a good win over William Diender for It's Showtime in September, defeated Maxim Vyrovski by decision.

In the MMA tournament, Roan Carneiro defeated Luis Ramos (DEC); John Alessio def. Sergey Golyaev (Sub via kimura, rd 2); Siyar Bahadurzada def. Derrick Noble (TKO via punches, rd 1); and Tommy Depret def. David Bielkheden (Sub via guillotine choke, rd 1).  Semi-finals will be Bahadurzada v. Alessio and Depret v. Carneiro.

One final bit of news from this event - Golden Glory stated that they will have five fighters at the K-1 Grand Prix.  Alistair Overeem, Gokhan Saki, and Semmy Schilt are all confirmed for the tournament, while 2 more GG fighters will be in reserve fights.  If I had to guess, I'd say that would be Errol Zimmerman and Sergei Kharitonov.

K-1 Scandinavia has announced the initial line-up for their November 27 Rumble of the Kings card, and there are a handful of fights worth taking a look at.

Most interesting: a showdown between the #8 ranked Artur Kyshenko and #24 Marcus Oberg.  This would be a good fight at any time, but right now it's of particular interest because of Kyshenko's recent showings.  Two years ago, Kyshenko was ranked #2 in the world, and was considered a favorite to win the MAX Grand Prix after Masato's retirement.  Now, he's struggling to stay in the top 10 and has been knocked out of the GP by the undersized Mo Khamal.  Kyshenko is 1-3 in his last four fights, and has only defeated one top 25 opponent in the last 2 years (a defeat of #5 Murat Direkci in May).  A loss here would be another significant setback, and Oberg definitely has the ability to win this.  A solid Muay Thai competitor, Oberg holds wins over Gago Drago, Dzhabar Askerov, and Faldir Chahbari.  The fight will be at 72.5 kg, which should benefit Kyshenko - a huge middleweight fighter whose struggles to make the MAX limit of 70kg may have played a factor in his recent loses.  Definitely one to watch here as Oberg has the ability to really increase his profile, while Kyshenko is in dire need of a win to right his ship.

The main event is also of interest, but for very different reasons, as everyone's favorite sideshow fighter Bob Sapp takes on top local fighter Jorgen Kruth under MMA rules.  A popular veteran of the European scene, Kruth made the transition to MMA last year and has put together a 3-0 record.  This will be his first opportunity to put a name on his MMA resume.  As for Sapp, what is there to say?  You know what he brings to the table, and you know if you care or not.  For what it's worth, Sapp is actually coming in to this fight off a win, having defeated Sascha Weinpolter in March. 

One last fight of particular interest is an MMA encounter between former UFC fighters, as Per Eklund faces Robert Emerson.  Eklund had a 1-2 run in the UFC in 2008/09, and is probably best known for his TKO loss to Evan Dunham in Dunham's UFC debut at UFC 95 last year.  Emerson is an alum from The Ultimate Fighter who looked poised to make some moves in the UFC Lightweight division back in 2008.  But after a 1-3 run, including a lackluster loss to Nik Lentz, Emerson was unexpectedly cut from the UFC earlier this year.  He's since bounced back with a win on a regional show in September, but this will be his first real test since leaving the UFC.  This is a good one to watch, as Dana White has always shown a willingness to bring back fighters who look good after being cut - a dominating stoppage over Eklund could help Emerson take a big step back towards the UFC. 

Rounding out the card: Dzhabar Askerov v. Pasi Luukanen, Rikard Nordstrand v. Jiri Zak, Magdalena Kowalczyk v. Caroline Ek, Payman Sharokni v. Martin Akhtar, and Ole Laursen v. Joakim Engberg under MMA rules.

We've reported before on United Glory's ambitious world series of kickboxing event kicking off on October 16.  As a reminder, this is a pair of tournaments, one kickboxing, one MMA, with the round of 8 taking place in October and the semi-finals and finals in February.  So far, we've had a partial line-up.  Now, the line-ups are set and the first round match-ups are annaounced. 

On October 16 in Amsterdam it will be:

Kickboxing:
Gokhan Saki v. Brice Guidon
Errol Zimmerman v. Adnan Redzovic
Stefan Leko v. Wendell Roche
Mourad Bouzidi v. Anderson Silva

MMA:
Siyar Bahadurzada v. Nick Thompson
Roan Carneiro v. Luis Ramos
Tommy Depret v. David Bielkheden
Sergey Golyaev v. TBA

Plus two superfights, Nieky Holzken v. Sahin Yakut in kickboxing, and Marloes Coenen against a TBD opponent in an MMA fight.

Despite this being the "confirmed" line-up, there's definitely a chance it could change.  The original line-ups included names like Paul Daley and Shinya Aoki, though they have obviously been removed.  From the kickboxing side, many of those involved are Golden Glory fighters, and since United Glory is essentially the promotion arm of Golden Glory, I would not expect them to cancel.  This is, however, just two weeks after the K-1 Final 16, so depending on the action there, it's entirely possible Zimmerman or Saki could have to drop out.

As it stands right now, this is a very solid tournament for a non-K-1 event.  There are a lot of fun potential matches here, and in particular, if this somehow leads to Saki v. Zimmerman, it would be a very exciting fight.  Hard to envision anyone else taking this, though Brice Guidon could be a spoiler, particularly if Saki ends up dropping out.